Cartography
by Four F and Fanfics
Summary: Private's job is to sketch a map of the sewer maintenance block. Simple enough. But when the tunnels seem to shift around them, the team are in danger and Private is depended upon to know the way out of this subterranean maze. Before it kills them, or turns them insane.
**This is just an extra bit of writing I did on the side. Let me know if you enjoyed it, I might do a second chapter to this if you guys like it.**

The sewer maintenance section was dark, silent, and creepy. It was composed of old tunnels, all unused, blocked off from the main sewer system of the city above by bricked-up tunnels and piles of debris. The tunnels were thin and low for a human, but for the penguins, they were a little overwhelming. If they all stood shoulder-to-shoulder, they wouldn't span half of the tunnel width.

It didn't smell too bad - it was out of use. The arching walls were simple brick and the floor was concrete. Small amounts of moss flecked the walls. A loose brick lay here and there, detached from the curved ceiling. The air was cold.

Skipper was in the lead, illuminating the tunnels about ten feet in front of them with a silvery-grey flashlight. He was followed closely by Kowalski. Between them they decided where to go, and which turns to take; Rico was at the back, set to provide spare flashlights.

Private's job was to make a map, using a pencil and a square piece of paper. It was a simple enough job.

Private had begun the line at the bottom, in the middle of the page. The line soon branched into two. They had taken the path to the left, which had contained a right turn, then a left, then curved around... the map grew and grew as they explored.

The map had soon gotten a little complicated. Small nubs flanked the lines here and there to show where they hadn't been when the tunnel branched. All line lengths were approximate, which meant some checking was in order when the tunnels looped or crossed over, necessitating some backtracking and wandering around. Some maintenance doors were marked on the map by a slightly thicker pencil line. Piles of rubble were marked with a circle and dead ends with a cross.

They had been down there for almost two hours, exploring and creating a map. They had hoped to find something good, something long forgotten, in these abandoned ruins. And if there was nothing, the tunnels could still be used as storage and as a backup safe-house.

When the group came across an X-shaped intersection, Private marked its location down instantly on his makeshift map.

He looked up. "To the left is that wide area with the collapsed roof," he said. "We haven't been anywhere near the area on the right."

Skipper nodded. "Right it is."

"Hold on - Private, what's straight ahead?" Kowalski asked.

"Nothing for a while," Private said as he checked the layout, "but if we keep going that way, we'll get back to that figure-of-eight corridor. The one with those two sealed doors."

"To the right it is," Skipper said again, taking the right-hand path. They followed him.

Private drew the line, and made it longer and longer as they walked further. There were no branching paths and no turns, just one straight line. After a while the group stopped as Skipper halted.

"It's a dead end," Skipper said in surprise, gazing at the brick wall that blocked the way.

Private looked up at the wall. A small cluster of bricks stuck out of the wall in the middle, like some had been turned sideways when the wall had been built. A patch of moss covered most of it.

Skipper turned away from the wall. "We'll go back. There was another way to go."

Private guessed the final length of the tunnel and ended the line. They turned around and began heading back to the intersection to take another path.

Suddenly, without warning, they were plunged into darkness. All light shut off and the blackness crowded in on all sides, rendering them helpless.

A few moments passed in silence, before the harsh sound of plastic hitting concrete pierced the air as Skipper tried to get the flashlight to light up again. Nothing happened. "Bulb's broken," He murmured.

Rico retched, bringing up another. He turned it on and held it out to Skipper, who tossed the old silver-coloured one aside. It struck the ground and rolled up to the wall. Skipper took the new blue torch from Rico.

The unit continued walking, Private's heartbeat a little faster than it had been previously.

They reached the 'X' again and made the turn. This section of the tunnel went on just as long, but then curved sharply to the left. They rounded the corner and found it lead to another 'X'.

Private consulted the map. "Left is the wider area again, we circled it... to the right is... we'll go around the 8-part with those doors if we go right. Nothing ahead."

"Do you think we'll find something around those doors?" Skipper asked them.

Kowalski shrugged. "Would be good to check," he said.

"Alright, let's go." They took the right-hand path again.

There was a branching right turn ahead. Private told them quickly, "If we keep straight we'll find the doors. I don't know what's to the right... It runs parallel to the dead end."

Skipper looked back at Kowalski. "Ahead, then?"

"Yep," answered the scientist promptly.

There was a left turn, then another branching turn off to the right. They followed it to another dead end, turned back and went the other way.

Private scratched the line onto the paper, head down as he walked forward and bumped into Kowalski. "Oh - sorry," he squeaked. He peeked around him. "Why've we stopped?"

"Another dead end," Skipper growled. He appeared to be getting frustrated.

Private noted it on the map. They turned back to go the other way, down the tunnel which ran parallel to the first dead end. They walked on in silence; the only sounds were their footsteps and Private's pencil scraping along the page.

"Which way, Private?" Skipper asked as they came to the turning.

"Hang on... we came that way... so we should go straight ahead - no, left."

They continued on.

Private scrawled the new line down. The line was almost as long as the first dead end's line when the tunnel took a sharp right. As they followed it, Private drew the line closer and closer to the line of first dead end. They ran perpendicular, and it was nearing it.

Then the tunnel split left and right, just where Private thought the lines were going to meet.

"Um... guys..." Private started to say, confused. According to his map, they had re-entered the tunnel where they had turned right at the first 'X'. But that tunnel hadn't had a turning. "I think we're by the..."

"This way," Skipper said, turning towards the 'dead end'. Private followed, but he was frowning. If this was the tunnel Private thought it was - according to the map, it had to be - then there would soon be a-

"Brick wall," Skipper muttered as the blue flashlight illuminated it.

Private shivered as he examined the wall. A small cluster of bricks were stuck out of it, just like somebody had turned them sideways when the wall was built. They were mostly covered in moss.

Private was confused. That was impossible. It couldn't be the same wall. "Guys, I think..."

"Over this way, then," Skipper declared, facing the way back to the 'X'.

"We'll be going back to the first X-shaped crossroad," Private said clearly. They looked at him.

He showed them the map. "According to this, we're back in this tunnel right here... we curved around and met it... look at the wall." He pointed. "It has the same cluster of bricks like we saw the first time."

Kowalski frowned at the wall, then at him, then started walking away from the wall. "Private, this can't be the same tunnel. It didn't have any turn-offs, and we just came down one."

"I know, but..."

"Private," Skipper interrupted, heading after Kowalski, "it's possible you just drew the lines wrong. You must have missed a turning."

Private looked down at his map doubtfully. He had been sure he had drawn it correctly. But maybe he hadn't, and the wall had been a coincidence. Maybe they were just next to the tunnel.

He looked up again and all doubt vanished.

He raised his flipper and pointed ahead. In a strangely calm voice, he spoke again.

"Explain that, then."

Before them, against the wall, lay the silver flashlight Skipper had tossed away.

"Explain how that could be here if this isn't the same tunnel."

They stood in absolute silence for a few seconds. Private lowered his flipper.

Skipper approached it slowly, illuminating it in the beam of the blue one. He glanced back at Private, a confused expression on his face, then picked it up. It was the same flashlight.

"Maybe it was a rat," he said finally. "Y'know, something alive could have brought it here."

"Are you sure? We haven't seen any signs of life down here, Skipper."

Skipper turned and glared at him. "Tunnels don't just shift around, Private. This has to be a different tunnel."

"It's the same one," Private said firmly, convinced. "The bricks were the same, and your torch was in the same place."

Skipper looked at Kowalski.

The scientist hesitated. "Perhaps we just missed the turn off when we first passed it."

 _We would have seen it_ , Private thought. But he nodded. It made sense. "You're probably right," he said.

"That's not possible," Skipper snapped. "I was keeping my eye out for other paths. There were none."

"Your eye must have missed it, then," Private said mildly.

Skipper glared at him for a second. He threw the old flashlight down again and kept walking, keeping a brisk pace. "The intersection is this way, is it?"

The other three hurried after him.

They came across an 'X' crossroad. Skipper shone his light down the path they had taken around. "So we-"

He cut off. The beam of light had fallen on another wall, a few metres down from the intersection. The path was blocked.

He shone the light down the next, and they saw the same thing. The third path was blocked off, too. "See?" Skipper said with weak confidence in his voice. "It's different. We're just a little lost, that's all. The wall was a coincidence. The flashlight was moved. Or, hey," he laughed, "maybe it was somebody else's flashlight we found. Maybe they had the same brand."

As if on cue, the blue one in his grasp flickered and died. All light disappeared for a second time. Rico promptly coughed up another and switched it on.

Private took a deep breath and splayed his feet slightly to steady himself. His heart pounded his chest. "Leave that one here," he commanded, gesturing at the second broken flashlight. "Leave it in the middle of this intersection."

Skipper blinked at him, but dropped it on the middle of the floor. He took the third one, a bright yellow one, from Rico.

Private turned the blue flashlight on the floor with his foot, so that the bulb end was facing the one open path. Then he followed them down that path and away from the intersection.

"It can't be the same place, Private," Skipper insisted. "The tunnels weren't like that."

Private said nothing. They kept walking.

The darkness in front of them revealed another wall as they neared. There was a turning to the right.

The tunnel had changed again.

Private looked down at his feet. He counted slowly to ten to soothe himself as Skipper spluttered and Kowalski paced around. As he looked back up at them, heart pounding but his mind a little more settled, he cleared his throat.

"I guess you were right, Skipper," he said clearly. "It's not the same tunnel."

The CO turned on him immediately. "This is no time for jokes, Private," Skipper snarled. "We get it. You think the tunnels are changing around us."

Kowalski paced past them thoughtfully. "Impossible..."

Suddenly, Private recalled the flashlights. "Every time the light goes out, it changes," Private mused aloud.

Skipper looked at him with hostility. "What?"

"The first time the light went out, another path opened up behind us. The second time, it created this one, and blocked off the other way-"

Rico garbled something. He stepped away from the wall and grunted. They looked round and saw what Rico was bringing attention to. Jutting out of the wall was one end of the first flashlight. Only an inch of its silvery-grey surface was visible.

Skipper groaned. "They're not changing. They're _not_ changing."

Private looked down at his map, meaning to correct it. His heart jolted in his chest as he took in what he was seeing. His throat felt constricted.

The markings had changed on the map.

"The map," Private choked out. "Look at my map."

The other three came closer.

"Impossible," muttered Kowalski. Skipper snatched the paper out of Private's grasp and turned it over. The other side was blank, so it had to be the same map. He turned it back over.

Each tunnel was marked in lines again. But the lines were clearly different from the map Private had drawn. The only thing which had stayed the same was the ladder - it remained at the bottom in the middle.

"It's changing with the tunnels," Private whispered.

"Impossible," Kowalski muttered again.

Skipper pushed the map into Private's chest. The boy clutched at it.

"I don't know what you're playing at, Private," Skipper said angrily, "but you had better cut it out. Right now."

"I didn't do this," Private hissed. "I didn't do anything."

Kowalski stepped between them. "We must have just gotten turned around in here," he said calmly. "Structures this old can contain lots of gases and chemicals in the materials, which can make people... confused. We're just took one more turning. After all, it's simply not possible that decades-old brick and concrete altered its layout in the dark." He looked Skipper in the eyes. "I also doubt that Private is trying to get us lost down here."

Private huffed in disbelief of what he was hearing. "The torch is embedded in the wall. The wall that _wasn't here two minutes ago_."

"We're just lost." Kowalski turned towards Rico. "How many more have you got?"

Rico shrugged. "Hum, 'bout seven," he grunted. "'N a pen."

"Hand me the penlight."

Rico gagged and spat out a thin chrome stick. He handed it to Kowalski, who turned it on, using its bright narrow beam to peer back down the tunnel.

"Alright... I'll keep a hold of this... Skipper, you lead the way." He joined the back of the group, behind Rico.

Skipper glared at Private. "What does your map say?"

Private found where their tunnel was on the map and followed it with his flipper.

"There's a left turn and then a junction... left... left is a way back but straight on is-"

"Come on. You had better be right, Private." He stormed forwards, yellow flashlight aimed straight ahead.

Private hurried after him. _Dumb old Skipper_ , he thought in frustration. _He never wants to change his mind about anything. There's a curse on these tunnels and he and Kowalski won't believe it_.

Private glanced behind him at Rico, hoping that at least one of his team believed what was happening, but Rico didn't seem to be paying any attention to what was going on. He didn't seem to care any more at all as he fiddled with the fuse on a stick of dynamite. Private and Kowalski looked at each other for a second, then Private turned away. _Stupid Kowalski_ , Private thought with anger.

Private saw the turning ahead in the yellow torch's beam. "Left," he growled before the leader could ask.

They rounded the corner. There was another brick wall there, blocking their path.

Skipper spun around and advanced on Private, who stumbled backwards in alarm. "I - it-" Private stammered.

"You think this is funny?" He snarled, gripping Private's shoulders hard enough to hurt. "Are you TRYING to tick me off?!"

"N-no!" Private gasped. "The map - it said-"

"Well, check it again," Skipper fumed, shoving the boy away. Private straightened up and consulted the map immediately.

Flippers shaking, Private traced their route on the lines. He found where they were stood. "There shouldn't be a wall here," he said. He looked up at the angry expression Skipper was wearing and flinched. "But the other way to go looks clear, too," he added hurriedly.

"Does it lead to the exit?"

Private shook his head.

"Good. Because we came down here to find something. Now come on."

Skipper strode away and down the other tunnel, the beam of his flashlight swaying drunkenly across the walls.

Private glanced at Kowalski, who hadn't reacted when Skipper had grabbed him, before following. He could have sworn he saw a trace fear on Kowalski's face, but he pushed that thought away. Private crinkled the map in his grip nervously. Skipper really was getting stressed. He didn't want to believe the walls were shifting and he didn't know who to blame. Private guessed it wouldn't be too long before Skipper snapped and attacked him. He just hoped that Kowalski would intervene if that happened.

The map showed a right-turn, then another dead end. "Turn right. But it might be blocked."

"'Might be'?" Skipper repeated, sounding calmer but still a little frustrated. "Is it blocked or not?"

"The map says it is, but it might be wrong." Private quailed under Skipper's gaze.

"Are you sure you're reading it right right?"

Private rechecked their location on the map. He spotted another section they could be in, but the line was dashed in the middle of the tunnel with a mark he had never made on the original map. The mark looked like a 2D drawing of a 3D box. He looked closer. The line ran through it at the same thickness, so it couldn't be a wider tunnel section, unless there was another layer beneath-

" _Today_ , Private," Skipper said impatiently, making him jump.

"I... we... we might be able to go... um..." He followed the line. "Straight on for a long time. Then there's a left turn." _And we'll go through a bit I don't understand_ , he almost added, but decided not to.

They continued along at a brisk pace. They were all tense. Even Rico looked a little worried now.

To Private, it suddenly felt like the walls were slowly closing in on them. He could have sworn they used to be wider. He imagined the team being lost down here for hours, lost and scared and trying to escape, until the bricks on either side met and crushed them to a paste in between.

He shivered.

The beam of light from Skipper's torch seemed dimmer than it had been, too. _Maybe the batteries are running out already,_ he thought with a prickle of unease. Or maybe it was just his imagination.

Kowalski's penlight was still bright, its thin beam passing over the other, sweeping in long arcs, searching for turn-offs and doors. It occasionally swung behind them while Kowalski checked something. Private wondered whether Kowalski was beginning to believe him about the walls changing in the dark.

The lights both flickered and they all flinched. A few seconds passed.

Private knew they would shut off any moment now, and the paths would change again. They walked forwards, slower this time, and Private hoped with all his heart that he was wrong.

"Must be a coincidence, both flashlights flickering at the same time," Private said loudly with a little sarcasm.

Kowalski spoke up. "Must be magnetic interference. The ground's magnetism can sometimes be patchy underground, and pulses and can affect electronics."

Private shook his head sceptically, but deep down he really hoped Kowalski was right.

Private began to get more nervous as they walked further. He didn't know what the cube was on his map, but whatever it was, they were nearing it.

"Where's the turn?" Skipper asked him.

"Ahead... just further on." Private looked around at Kowalski. "See if you can see it," he told the scientist. Kowalski shone the light forwards. Private knew the turning wasn't close. What he wanted to spot was whatever the box on his map was.

Private guessed it was just a little further. The two beams of light scoured the darkness in front of them. Private tensed a little, so sure it was just a few more feet forward.

Without a sound, both lights shut off and there was only darkness again. Private gripped the map so hard it crinkled, the only noise around them other than their own unsteady breathing. Private heard Rico cough up another, but it didn't light up the tunnel when it switch on. Another. The same thing. Private felt like he was going to pass out from sheer terror.

"Rico?" He whispered desperately.

Finally, a small, flickering light illuminated the tunnel around them. Dizzy with relief, Private moved closer to the source, which was one of Rico's lighters. He was so happy to see the light that he didn't notice the walls.

"Private," Skipper said behind him. "Private - what did you do?"

A little startled by the terror in his voice, Private looked round at his leader, then at the walls. He gasped.

They were enclosed.

The panic set in again. Private whirled in place, seeing walls on every side. With a jolt he realised - the box on the map. They were in the box.

His gaze fixed on the paper. There was now only one mark on the map: a little sketched cube, in the middle of the otherwise clean page. Even the ladder was gone.


End file.
